A homeless man has been sentenced to 20 months imprisonment after setting alight a bin outside a veterinary centre and causing a blaze which killed a cat.

Liam Duggan, 35, was jailed on Friday August 1 after being charged with one count of arson.

Guildford Crown Court heard how police were called to Lynton House Veterinary centre in Victoria Road, Woking on May 26 at 1.16am.

Prosecutor Elizabeth Dean told the court how Duggan set a bin alight in the car park behind the vet centre, causing just under £16,000 worth of damage.

She said: “Extensive damage was done to the surgery and one cat died of smoke inhalation.”

Daisy, a 13-year-old stray cat, had lived in the veterinary centre for a year and a half as her owner was unable to look after her.

Damage was also caused to the veterinary electrics, car park and freezer, the court was told.

Guildford Crown Court heard how the defendant had been drinking and then set fire to a bin.

The fire then got out of control and he tried to put it out with his foot, the judge was told.

Duggan then left the area having thought it was extinguished.

The prosecutor said that Duggan, of no fixed abode, returned the next day and seeing the damage, handed himself in.

Lance Whiteford, defending, said: “He didn’t intend to cause the damage and his actions were reckless.

“Mr Duggan knows he will get a custodial sentence. He is someone who started using drugs at a very early age.

“He knows that he has got to change in relation to drinking and drugs.

“He cannot continue to use drink and drugs as he is going in and out of prison and knows he has got to stop.”

Mr Whiteford added: “He is extremely remorseful for the loss of a pet.

“If he had been sober, he would never had lit the fire. He intends to use the time in prison to make use of the agencies and help that he will get.”

Summing up the case Judge Robert Frazer said: “It’s a remarkably foolish thing to have done.

“Sadly one animal had to die because of your reckless actions and it caused £16,000 worth of damages.

“On the positive side you handed yourself in to the police.

“Taking into account of your early guilty plea there has been a reduction of a sentence by a third and you are therefore sentenced to 20 months in prison.”

The director of Lynton House Vet Centre, Russell West, said: “I don’t understand why he did it and why somebody would light a fire in the first place. It’s unacceptable.”

Russell West has been the director and partner of the centre since 1971 and was away on holiday at the time.

Mr West said: “Thankfully the vet’s fire door held out most of the fire.

“The main problem we had was the enormous amount of smoke damage. Fortunately we don’t have any customers' pets in the centre overnight but Daisy stayed with us.”

He added: “Excuse the pun but she was a little smokey grey cat with thyroid problems.

“She used to be a black cat with long hair.

The veterinary team had bedded her down for the night at about 9pm, and Mr West said she was ‘fine’.

He said: “However she had succumbed to smoke inhalation when she was found and was taken to another practice in Woking where they tried to resuscitate her, but it didn’t work. That was the really sad part.”

On the night of the fire, Matthew West, the practice manager of Lynton House, was alerted at around 3am to the incident by people in the flats opposite. Staff and their spouses came into the centre to help clear out the smoke.

“We are still clearing away the sooty mess now and we will be having another clean out over the next coming weeks,” he said.

“The smell has just about gone, but if the fire wasn’t spotted the whole building would have gone down.

He added: “I am however grateful that there was no more damage was caused.”